M102 Arrived Today! Pics and condition questions

[Jim Dep]

When the gentleman (Dave) arrived with the organ in back of his truck today, I thought one of two things. Either this isn't a M100 or the legs got broken off. Anyway, it turned out to be a M102 instead of a M100. Great! That's perfectly OK! As it is a gift, I had no preference in the M100 family.

I'm very grateful to Dave who donated it to me along with his son and friend who helped deliver it into my living room. I gave them $20 for the "shipping and handling" across town and I wish it could have been more.


I'm also very grateful to the good people here that supported me through all this over the last month and encouraged me not to settle for trading away my valuables for a lesser organ that was over priced. If it wasn't for the good people of this forum, I would not have an M102 sitting in my living right now.

The M102 came with the original Validation Cards and warranties (never filled out) and a players guide for an L-100 ?! Maybe they are similar, I haven't closely looked at the L's. Anyway, that was a nice touch.
What was really a nice touch was that he left the Leslie kit in!

The M102 is missing 2 tubes, that I believe are 6V6's. My understanding is that the tubes made today do not last anywhere near as long as the ones made back in the 50's and 60's. For guitars anyway, I hear of power tubes having to be replaced at least one a year (depending on usage) and pre amp tubes tend to last much longer. I have a Beltone early 60's tube amp for guitar that still has the original tubes and sounds great. I can crank it all the way without distorting, but I almost always play at low volume.

The M102 has sat in storage somewhere ( dusty but I've seen worse) without being played or oiled. Dave bought this as a package deal because this organ came with a Leslie. He only really wanted the Leslie, so the organ has just been sitting. The previous owner before Dave said the organ was either not working at all or not working well. He doesn't remember but he has never tried to start it. He thinks the previous owner said something like " the oil has solidified in the tone generator" but he's not %100 sure. He recommends getting it reoiled and coax it back to life. He's not sure if the generator moves or is stuck. When he brought it over today, he did not have the TWG tied down. Granted, he only needed to bring it a couple miles. That concerns me, but I'll take it one step at a time. Everything looks intact from what he told me and from what I can see, minus the two tubes.

These are the "before" pictures. I have not done a thing to it yet. I want to get some plan of attack organized. I had intended to educate myself as much as possible before it got here, but I didn't. I've been on pins and needles, thinking that maybe he was going to back out and then I'd be majorly depressed so I tried to take my mind of it since this came up. My brain is fried from trying to get the N working, so I wasn't ready for another big disappointment. That would have hurt, but now I can breath a sigh of relief and I'm ready to dive in. I'm going to ask for help going through this process and thanks again for putting up with me!



1. ) Tubes, recommended brand and from where? Any brand to avoid? Good place for Hammond oil?
2. ) Can the little 2 speed internal Leslie from my N series be run off of the M102's Leslie kit? Any adapter available to make that work? If so, I'd want to make a separate cabinet to put wheel and motors in.
3) What would you tackle first while waiting on the tubes?
4) Can you tell by the serial # what year this was made?










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[Jim Dep]

[Jim Dep]

[torea]

Glad you got it! It'll be a great little organ once you have it fixed up.

1) Tubes I can't really help you, but I've heard good things about JJ tubes. Hammond's aren't like guitar amps, the tubes aren't known for dying. Maybe a guitar player snagged the tubes for an amp.
For Hammond oil, I'd go with tonewheelgeneral.com. That's where I usually get my Hammond/Leslie stuff.

2) I don't think you could easily do it while the Leslie is in the organ, but if you put it in a separate box it should be pretty easy.

3) I'd get that oil and oil the organ. Actually, I'd try starting it to see if it works or if it's stuck. If it's stuck, you can get started with some WD40 under the generator. Or you can wait for the oil.

4) Check this page out - http://www.tonewheelgeneral.com/agelist/agelist.php


I'm tired and will let the others fill in the blanks.

[peanut]

Awesome!,thats a very clean looking spinet,congratulations

[gtc]

Very nice!

Re 6V6s try to get a genuine matched pair if you can, although there will be a price premium for that.

[Wes]

Whoooooooooooooooooo HOOO

You just scored big-time, my friend.

Tubes in Hammonds are not pushed to their limits like in guitar amps. So they last way longer, it's not just old construction, it's how they are used.

The 6V6 is a common common common tube. You should have no trouble finding replacements. Your local guitar tech will have a set.

Don't worry about the TG lockdown. Get the organ working, if there are missing tones, identify and fix. It's no big deal.

Having the Leslie kit IS a big deal. Those switches are worth fifty bucks a pop...you will be glad you have the kit someday when you find yourself a Craig's List deal on a Leslie.

L100 player's guide -- the major difference between the L100 and the M100 is the quality of the vibrato. The M100 is so much better. Trivia -- "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was recorded on an M102, I believe using internal vibrato i.e. no Leslie.

I trust you have found the M-series service manual on archive.org? You will enjoy reading it. At least I did.

Wes

[andyg]

WSOP features a leslie, chorale for the verse, switching to tremolo for 'And so it was.......'

There is a school of thought that says that, given the lo-fi nature of the organ's audio, matched pairs aren't essential, just nice.

I can see the leslie switches on the front rail, but not the connector kit. That should be a silver coloured box with a 6 pin socket for the leslie cabinet.

[peanut]

I think there is one there in the back in between the amp and reverb amp,I see an amphenol plug and what looks like a connector box,its just obscured by everything else

[Tdawg]

Yay Jim, congratulations! I was starting to get a bit worried for you that it wasn't going to happen.... glad it worked out! I'm guessing it's a '64 or '65 maybe? Looking good so far... back of my M3 looked way dustier than this when I got it. That's so awesome that they brought it over for you and bonus score on the halfmoon switches too! Hopefully a little oil will do the trick.... have fun playing around with it and good luck!


..also might want to pick up one of those little inspection mirrors if you don't already have one